by Terry Persun
“Awesome work, my friend. I can’t thank you enough.”
“Good. I’m going to visit my daughter this evening. I want to be sure she’s okay.”
“Soul retrieval. Koko got hold of her somehow.”
“I’ll do that after we meet, and I tell her what happened.”
“Don’t tell her about the job,” Dan said.
“No worries.”
Dan turned back around. “Okay, Cora, Blake, what have you got?”
“Mercer found a way in,” Blake said.
“And I researched cockroaches,” Cora added.
“Yeah, what was that about?” Blake asked.
“Thank you,” Dan said. “What have you got?”
“I don’t like what you do so much, and I definitely don’t understand it, but what I found was pretty interesting. It appears that cockroaches like to lay their eggs inside dark areas, corners of rooms, under alarm clocks, inside women’s purses.”
“Not surprised,” Dan said.
“When their eggs hatch, they’re full grown. There’s no pupal stage. Nothing. Egg to adult. I found that fascinating.”
“Eggs are oval.”
“Ah, yeah. What’s that matter?” Cora asked.
“I was looking for something oval when Cockroach appeared, and all its children came from the wall.”
“No children.”
“I know. They didn’t even look like children. There were thousands of them,” Dan said.
“Thousands of embryos,” Cora said, her voice trailing off. Then her hands went to her mouth, and she began to cry. “Oh my God, oh my God.”
Dan jumped up to go to her and so did Agent Blake. They were both helping her to a stuffed chair in the corner of the room when Agent Blake looked directly at Dan and said, “Her daughters were embryonic implants.”
“From where?”
“It’s okay, it’s okay,” she said, waving them away. “I can sit on my own.” She plopped into the chair and looked up at Dan. “It was all very legal and everything. Monitored. Dr. Dunst wasn’t involved. It wasn’t done here. But it all makes sense now.” She turned her head away. “Unless they were doing this then…”
“I don’t know enough about any of the details,” Dan said.
“I know some,” she said. “The language gets complicated.”
“Other languages, legalese,” Dan said.
“My husband didn’t want it to happen and never really got used to the girls. I didn’t listen to his protests. I just wanted children, then he left, I had to go back to work, my life turned into shit…” She sniffed. “He couldn’t deal with them not being his and I didn’t care enough about him to listen. I was selfish, and now look at me.” she shrugged. “I have so screwed up my life.” She took a deep breath and turned back to Dan and Bill as though nothing had happened. She was some tough woman. “This isn’t about me.” She wiped away her tears and stood. “What they’re doing is impossible from what I understand. If what they’re doing is what I think they’re doing. You can’t just harvest a lot of eggs like that.”
“We’re going to find out,” Dan said. “Even if they’re stealing only a few eggs at a time from these girls, we have to stop it.”
“Women have millions of eggs. Many of them wither and die, like in your journey. But, if he’s devised some way of keeping them alive in his incubator, then maybe they can take all the eggs from the girls, then sell them off to the highest bidders.” Her lip twitched before she talked again. “But then the girls could never get pregnant.”
“Lost childhood, just like Cockroach showed me,” Dan said.
“And all those eggs could be sold,” Cora said. “Worth millions.”
“After they sell the eggs they sell the girls off. They’re unable to get pregnant. Maybe there’s a premium for that,” Dan said.
“And a premium for exotic DNA,” Cora said. “The beautiful bone structure in the face, the strength of the body. These native girls are beautiful.” She swung around. “Well, you’ve seen Koko.”
Dan stood quietly for a moment, assessing all they’d learned.
“No,” Cora said while staring at him.
“No, what?” Blake asked.
“I know what you’re thinking,” she said to Dan. “I’ll send my men in.”
Dan shook his head. “You have to trust me. I have to do this. Me, no one else.”
“We’ve eliminated the shamans. The operation is clearing up. No more blockage. The people left are on our level. Besides, it’s dangerous, and I won’t let you do it. I’m in charge. You said so yourself from the beginning. Less than a week ago in the van. You promised.”
“Jason promised. I was coerced.”
“I have to handle this,” she said. “Go to your room, journey if you want to, but my men found a way in and we’re going to follow through from this point forward. Richard took care of Koko. We have Mindy in custody and can keep her busy.”
Dan stared at her a while then nodded and headed for the door. As he was closing it behind him, he heard Agent Blake say, “That was too easy.”
Dan smiled at the comment. They had no idea.
Back in his room, Dan made a few phone calls then went downstairs to get something to eat. While walking to Denny’s, he saw Agent Mercer across the street and waved him over.
“Sorry for following you, sir,” Agent Mercer said as he approached.
“Don’t be. But since you’re here, you’d might as well eat with me. It’s got to be better than lurking outside.”
“I could have remained hidden,” he said as though he didn’t want Dan to think he were a bumbler.
“I know that. But why bother at this point. We know each other.”
“Exactly,” Jim Mercer said. “My thinking, too.”
They got a table and the first thing Dan did was to explain he knew about Cora’s children. He then asked, “What do they look like? Are they good in school? How is she as a parent?”
Jim spent all their food-waiting time answering Dan’s questions, but mostly explaining how motherly and kind Cora was to her family and how committed she was to her work.
“Do you think she knew what was going on here? About the sale of eggs?” Dan asked after his ham and cheese sandwich arrived.
Agent Mercer had a bowl of soup sitting in front of him and was breaking crackers over the top. “No. Unless she kept it from everyone, but I can’t imagine her doing that.”
“You two, you and Blake, are pretty loyal to her.”
He smiled. “She’s like our mother, too. She asks a lot of us, no doubt, but she cares about us and watches over us. You’d like her if you got to know her better.” He winked. “I notice she already likes you.”
“I’m attached. Girlfriend back in New York.”
“What’s she like?”
“Pretty, kind…”
“But? I notice you stopped. Something wrong with her?”
“Not her,” Dan said, “my work.”
“She doesn’t know what you do? That could get in the way.”
She knows some, but she shouldn’t get involved in this. It’s not safe.”
“Isn’t that her decision?”
“Now you sound like Jason, but no, it’s not. If I’m worried for her, I can’t do my job.”
“I see what you mean. Ever think of moving back here then?” Jim asked.
“Second time someone’s asked me that. There is something about it that I miss. Can’t put my finger on it, though.”
“What about you? Any kids besides Jason?”
“No. Thank God.” Dan shook his head. “We’ve not known each other well for a long time, but he shows up on my doorstep and asks me to train him. He’d already learned a lot, but don’t let him know I said that.”
“You don’t trust him.”
“I don’t trust easily. But it’s not that. I’m still struggling with the thought of getting him into this mess I’ve been involved with most of my life. It’s dangerous. It’s out of
the mainstream for sure, and I don’t spend much time in the physical world.”
“The real world you mean,” Mercer said.
“It’s all real. That’s the problem. Everything I do is real. I delineate between an altered state and the physical world strictly based on laws.”
“Laws?”
“The physical world has a set of physical laws.” Dan cocked his head toward the window. “You can’t fly like those birds out there. But, in an altered state you can. The problem is that the two worlds connect in strange and varied ways, fluid ways. You can’t always predict how or why. You have to follow your instincts.” He nodded. “That’s where Jason has some learning to do.”
“You worry about your son, doesn’t affect your work? Like your girlfriend?”
“That’s the thing. It doesn’t. For some reason, it feels right with him, worry or not.”
Agent Mercer appeared ready to ask another question when his phone buzzed and he quickly pulled it from his pocket, looked at who called, and brought it to his ear. “Mercer here.” He held the phone toward Dan. “She wants to talk with you.”
Dan said, “Hello.”
“Who are you, anyway?” Her voice was accusatory.
“What do you mean?”
“I just got explicit orders not to get in your way. To, well, basically, hand this over to you. You knew how I felt about this and you went over my head to God knows who, God knows how far up, because my boss sounded pretty scared and couldn’t tell me anything.”
“I’m sorry,” Dan said.
“You are not sorry,” she fairly screamed into the phone, and Dan pulled it away from his ear.
Mercer’s face scrunched up. “I heard that.”
“If this is what you planned from the start, why didn’t you just do it? Why embarrass me in front of my crew? Why steal this job from me when it means so much?”
“That wasn’t my intention. We’re just in this too deeply for me to let it go only in the physical world.” He gave Mercer a quick look.
“I don’t even know what that means,” she yelled.
“I’m sorry,” Dan said quietly, then handed the phone back to Agent Mercer.
“Did she hang up?” Mercer asked.
“No, but she’s said everything she wants to say. Anything more is just a reiteration with more anger. Once a person gets angry, they tend to escalate their anger themselves. They don’t need help. And I don’t have time for it.”
Cora began talking again, and Agent Mercer interrupted her. “Cora, Cora, he’s not listening. He handed the phone back to me.”
Cora said something loudly, then the phone went silent.
Dan held up his hand. “I don’t even want to know how she ended that call.”
“So, what are you going to do?”
“You are going to show me the way in,” Dan said.
Mercer sat for a moment then took a few bites of soup, a struggling look on his face.
Dan gave him the time he needed for whatever battle went on inside his head. “After we’re finished here would be good. I need the nourishment for what I’m about to do.”
“I won’t show you until I talk with Cora,” Mercer announced.
“I like your loyalty, but she said it’s in my hands now.”
“I’m going to pass everything through her, sir. I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry a lot, but I fully understand. Pass everything through her then, but do it quickly. Some of this might not be able to wait. If I need something, it has to be right away.”
Mercer didn’t appear happy with the new arrangement. He set down his spoon. “I don’t have much appetite at the moment.”
“It doesn’t have to be this way,” Dan said.
“It does for me.” Agent Mercer called Cora and asked permission to show Dan the entrance. He was given the okay. “I don’t particularly like this,” he said, “but I’ll do it.”
Dan let Mercer stew in the seat across from him, while he ate the rest of his sandwich, a few chips, and the pickle. He wiped his mouth and hands with the napkin. “Looks like I’m ready.”
Mercer didn’t say anything, but he did pay for the meal with cash he left on the table. A big tip, Dan noticed.
Outside, Mercer led Dan toward the Growers Imports building, but went past it to the next building, a shorter, squatter building. “We discovered that originally these two buildings belonged to the same company, also an import-export business—not the same. There’s a corridor that runs from one building to the next. In fact there are two, one in the front, and one in the back like servants’ entrances.”
“Reminiscent of the underground railroad,” Dan said.
“There’s a grocery store parking lot that butts up to this building in the back where there’s an entrance. They park in the grocery lot and walk over.”
“You never noticed people doing that?” Dan asked.
Mercer gave him a stern look as if to say that wasn’t the directive.
Dan didn’t care. He knew it was all because of the blocks put up.
Mercer continued, “The doors are locked, of course, and we suspect guards. Everybody seems to have a key.” He waited for a moment. “I have no idea what your plans are, but they have guns.” He lowered his head. “Cora said that I’m supposed to keep my eye on you, help keep you safe. You’re not equipped to do this on your own, and she doesn’t want to be responsible for your death. I think she meant that, too.”
“I know,” Dan said.
Mercer opened his jacket, and Dan saw a shoulder holster with the handle of a Glock 17 sticking out. “I only have one,” Mercer said.
“Don’t worry about that,” Dan said. He walked to the end of the block with Mercer and turned the corner and walked another block, then toward the grocery store. He went inside and picked up a bottle of cheap, screw-top wine and bought it. He knew Mercer was curious, but the man wasn’t socializing at the moment, so Dan let him wonder what was up. He walked out of the store and around to the side, then back into the rear parking lot.
His target, the squat building, appeared to be used for manufacturing or storing at one time, most likely a warehouse. It had one of those flat roofs. Dan didn’t notice anyone up there but wandered slowly enough that if there were someone watching from above, the man would come into view before long. Dan unscrewed the wine bottle and took a sip. He held it toward Mercer.
“Is this part of what you do, how you get into your altered state?”
Dan laughed. “You should know better by now.” He headed for the building, pored the wine into a stand of bushes near the rear of the lot next to the warehouse then shoved the bottom of the bottle into his jacket pocked. Near the back door of the building, Dan removed a paper clip from his pocket, uncoiled it, and picked the lock.
“You’re more industrious than I thought,” Mercer whispered.
Dan held a finger to his lips. He opened the door slowly while reaching back and grabbing the neck of the wine bottle, pulling it from his pocket. “Safe,” he said.
Dan let Mercer continue to follow him as he wandered along the wall that was nearest the Growers’ Imports building. When he came to a door, he looked through the small rectangular window at the top of the door then ducked quickly.
“What?” Mercer asked.
“Someone’s coming.” Dan motioned for Mercer to stand on the other side of the door, on the hinged side. As Mercer moved back, Dan flattened against the wall and raised the bottle over his head.
The moment the door opened, Dan brought the bottle down, but the guard was quick and blocked the motion. The guard shoved into Dan’s chest, using the flat of his hand. “What are you doing here?”
Dan held up the bottle. “Drinking.”
The man cocked his head, and Dan saw Mercer emerge from behind the door. Dan shook his head while looking at Mercer, knowing that the guard would turn around and give him a second shot with the bottle. It worked, and Dan swatted the guard hard enough across the back of the h
ead to knock him out. Dan stepped over the body. “Sorry, my friend.”
Mercer dragged the man out of the way. “What’ll we do when he wakes?”
“We’ll deal with it later.”
“You never know how long a person’s going to stay out. We should deal with it now.”
Dan nodded. “You deal with him. I’m going ahead.” Jim Mercer reached for his pistol, but Dan shook his head that it wasn’t necessary. “I don’t like guns.”
Mercer went back to business and pulled tie straps from somewhere inside his jacket.
Dan knew that would bundle him up, but not shut him up. But Mercer would take care of things, he was sure.
The hallway was minimally lighted with a door at the far end. Dan stayed as low as possible while making his way toward it. A straight stretch didn’t give him anywhere to hide. At the far door, he edged up and looked through the window. Nothing. He pushed on the door, and it was locked as well. He set the wine bottle down and picked the lock, slowly opened it, and stepped through. There were rooms and adjoining hallways, which could make his progress much safer if not easier. He was sorry he didn’t think of bringing an earpiece so that he might be able to talk with Jason, but it was too late. He scurried down the hallway and around the first corner where he surprised a guard.
The man turned around and reached for his gun.
Dan squatted while throwing a kick into the man’s knee, snapping it. The guard cried out—not good. Dan thwacked him with the wine bottle. “I know,” he said to no one, “he could wake up any time.” At the next corner, Dan was more careful. He heard rustling, as though someone were running toward him, no doubt the person who heard the last guard call out. Dan sunk low to the ground. Attackers almost never watched the ground; they always searched at their own height, waiting to meet someone face-to-face. He had the wine bottle ready.
Just as the man came around the corner, Dan swung the bottle, but missed. The guard slammed a fist into the side of Dan’s head, knocking him into the wall. Dan leaped up and brought a fist into the guard’s chin, then rotated back out of reach, ducked to confuse the guard as to what was coming next, and slammed a fist into the man’s side. Air rushed from the guard’s mouth and Dan rose enough to apply a second blow to the man’s temple and another one to the opposite temple with the wine bottle. The man dropped.